What Happened to the Chef Who Won the Job at the Sea Dog?

Last year, Sea Dog Steak & Ale in Northborough, perhaps in an effort to reverse some negative publicity related to customer reviews and health department inspections, welcomed the Food Network to its establishment. The network filmed an episode of "Chef Wanted with Ann Burrell," a show that pits two chefs who are vying for the job as the executive chef at the restaurant.

Amie Hurd won the job, and by the time the show aired, the Sea Dog had closed for good. So where was Hurd offered a job, and where did she go?

You may have wondered, and Northborough Patch did, too. We investigated, and got some answers—some of them clear ... others not so much.

Hurd told Northborough Patch that the experience on the show was "absolutely wonderful." At the time, she was contacted at the place she worked, Mojos and the Exchange, which she helped open and was its head chef.

"When I got the call from the network, I talked to a few friends of mine," said Hurd. "I wasn't really looking to leave, but they all said I should go and do the show. So I told the owner and my boss at the time that I needed a week off because I wanted to do the show. I figured if, by chance, I won, it would further my career ... then wonderful!"

Hurd headed down to the Sea Dog a day before the shooting and tried some appetizers and beers. She thought, "good beer, uneventful food."

"As the show progressed and I continued to move forward with it, it was awesome," she said. "I was pushed to limits in the kitchen that I hadn't been pushed to before and, being very competitive, pushed myself against some pretty talented cooks/chefs. After I find out I won, I was genuinley ecstatic and many thoughts of my opportunities rushed through my head."

Hurd went home and talked about her options with her boyfriend. She was conflicted because she felt it would be a great opportunity to run a fully-staffed kitchen, but she had also just moved home to Portsmouth, NH, from Arizona and had just gotten settled. She talked with her boss at Mojos, who offered Hurd a management position. She "kindly declined the position at Sea Dog."

Hurd now works in Portsmouth as a sous chef at Cafe Mediterraneo, where she had worked years ago.

But what if she had accepted the job at the Sea Dog? It abruptly closed less than two months later.

"I am not 100 percent sure of the reasons why the Sea Dog closed," said Hurd. "I was in contact with one of the owners named David for about two weeks after the show was filmed in September, and I was offered the job with a competitive salary, but after getting an equally great job offer at home, I opted to stay."

In December, Michael Minichello, who was the most recent manager at Sea Dog before it closed, visited the Board of Selectmen to request an extension of its liquor license.

"We were losing a good amount of money every month," said Minichello at the board meeting. "We decided to close down. We have a couple of proposals to rebrand. But it'll cost us to rebrand. Instead of losing money, we decided to close, and we are asking for an extension so we can re-evaluate our business plan."

But a spokesperson for Bostonian Hospitality, which owned the Sea Dog and leased the property in Northborough, said that Minichello "is no longer with the company and the company is no longer associated with the property. We have no plans to reopen."

The property is owned by Bill Depietri, Capital Group Properties. 

Attempts by Patch to contact Minichello were unsuccessful.